Are messengers (rasul) better than you?

RASHAD SAID… This article is directed to the Submitters who believe Rashad Khalifa was a messenger of God . Unfortunately, many Submitters are using Rashad’s materials as secondary sources besides the Quran and have forgotten the essential message preached by Rashad himself: to uphold the Quran, the whole Quran, and nothing but the Quran.

I’ve taken the liberty to quote Rashad in a few of his videos where he emphasizes that he is only human, can make mistakes, nobody should follow ‘him’ and that our ultimate reference is Quran Alone. I pray the verbatim of Rashad (below) will enable us to put the ‘human’ back into the ‘messenger’ and direct our focus on Quran Alone. The messenger said, “My Lord, my people have deserted this Quran.” (25:30) The great Debate: “if you obey the rasool [messenger], you will uphold the Quran, the whole Quran, and nothing but the Quran.

IF YOU GO TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE QURAN YOU ARE NOT OBEYING THE MESSENGER.” AbdelRahman: These ppl come to the mosque here, who are they following? They follow you how to do, right? Rashad: No, they follow Quran only… “if you follow Dr. Khalifa then you are not right”

Anybody here – and well know this – we do not follow any person, and we emphasize here we are worshipers of God Alone, we follow the word of God alone, and if I say anything that is not in the Quran or contradictory to the Quran, I am the first one to appreciate alerting me to this, because then I am wrong. Nobody follows me. AbdelRahman: If I am following Quran then why should I listen to Dr. Khalifa? RAshad: You do NOT need Rashad Kkhalifa or anybody.

If you have the Quran you do not need anybody because we follow the Quran alone and nothing else. 1988 Conference: You know if I tell you something that is not quranic you tell me to ‘get out of here’ and I would be the first to denounce that. There are many kinds of messengers, and I got news for you; you [the people] are messengers.

You deliver the message La ilaha Illah Allah. Every one of you, when you meet someone, and you tell them to worship God Alone, you are messengers… and you know you are.. you are delivering God’s message. But in this particular instance makes me one who is given a specific mission. But we are all doing this. This is the final message, everything is here [holding the Quran], and we do not do anything that is NOT here [holding the Quran].

But there is so much information here that will keep coming until the end of the world; information that our parents did not know, information that we do not know, and information that our grandchildren are destined to know.

It’s all here [still holding the Quran]! Old Message New Messenger PART 1 The Quran teaches us that a messenger of God is not necessarily better than anyone else in the congregation. In 18:60-82 we see that God picked out one of the biggest messengers, Moses, one that God said “ I made you for Myself”… and we see in those verses that God sent to Moses ‘one of our Servants who We bestowed Mercy and Knowledge’, and Moses proved to be a lousy student.

So this teaches us that a messenger of God is not necessarily better than anyone else in the congregation. I can think of quite a few of you whom I consider better than me. The truth is, the Quran repeats that a messenger of God is a human being like you or in coloquiel terms, “a flopster like the rest of us”… The Quran teaches that a commissioned messenger does not guarantee heaven. We see this in 39:65. So a messenger of God does not even guarantee heaven.

This is why we see in 21:28 that the messengers are worried about their own neck… But the people who have ignorance or idolatry in them, they resent an announcement like this. The Quran says in sura 49 of who is better than whom… ‘the best among you is the most righteous’.. it doesn’t say ‘the best among you is the messenger or the richest…’

We are ppl who follow the Quran the whole Quran and nothing but the Quran. Therefore anybody – and this means anybody – who brings any information must conform to the Quran, the whole Quran and nothing but the Quran.

And if anyone comes up with any information that is not confirmed by the Quran we tell him ‘forget it. We don’t accept it’ The criterian is preaching and confirming existing scriptures in the Quran, and nothing else.. No innovations. What are we going to do if a messenger of God comes and says ’worship God alone and forget about the human beings?’ – Muhammad, Jesus, Moses or anybody… You must devote yourself totally to God Alone; one who will preach the Quran… PART 2.

But if we understand the Quran, we’ll find out it [the term ‘messenger of God’] is not a big deal, because the Quran teaches us that a messenger is not necessarily better than anyone around him.

We have this lesson in sura 18… The Quran teaches that ‘say I am a human being like you’ … The Quran teaches that the criteria to closeness to God is righteousness; not being a messenger, or not being the most knowledgeable, or the richest, or the tallest, or anything else. So anyone can be more righteous than the messenger or anybody else.

There is also a verse in sura 39 that teaches that being a messenger of God doesn’t guarantee heaven. .. If people understand this, they will not make a big deal out of the messenger of God. Note: as righteous Muslims, we are required to verify all information we hear (17:36).

I therefore recommend verifying the above said information by watching the videos. As a disclaimer: these quotations are NOT taken out of context nor are they a means to create some form of ‘hadith’. These quotations are simply to show how Rashad himself denounces any form of deviation from following anything besides the Quran. Peace Joe S.
From: Student of the Quran < >
Subject: [Progressive-Muslim] Are messengers better than you? / response to Mubashir
To:
Date: Tuesday, July 5, 2011, 10:22 PM

Salamun Alaykum

Like us, the Prophets and the Messengers are also the servants of God. God counts righteousness

only. God ranks all of us based on our righteousness. Please note that we all have the following duty:

[16:125] You shall invite to the path of your Lord with wisdom and kind enlightenment, and debate with them in the best possible manner. Your Lord knows best who has strayed from His path, and He knows best who are the guided ones.

God’s blessings are limitless. All we need to earn it. Sadly, we focus on the messengers, not on

the message! Those of us who think Jesus or Mohammad are in a better position, God says they

are liars!

[39:3] Absolutely, the religion shall be devoted to GOD alone. Those who set up idols beside Him say, “We idolize them only to bring us closer to GOD; for they are in a better position!” GOD will judge them regarding their disputes. GOD does not guide such liars, disbelievers.

Here are some examples of Allah calling His Messengers/Prophets as His servants:

(This is) a recital of the Mercy of thy Lord to His servant Zakariya

Before them the People of Noah rejected (their messenger): they rejected Our servant, and said, “Here is one possessed!”, and he was driven out

19:30 He said: “I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet

25:I Blessed is He who sent down the criterion to His servant, that it may be an admonition to all creatures

Subject: Re: A servant of God can be better than a messenger of God? / response to Mubashir

Salam Mubashir.

How do you get this name? The Quran specify Moses’ teacher “as servant of God”.

Thank you and may God guide me,

Muhammed Irtaza

From: Mubashir Inayet < >
Subject: Re: A servant of God can be better than a messenger of God? / response to Mubashir

Date: Monday, July 4, 2011, 7:05 AM

Dear Irtaza

Perhaps Khizr was also a messenger (Allah calls messengers His servants as well) who was to train Musa in his way to messengerhood?

Mubashir

On 2011-07-02, at 7:30 PM, Student of the Quran < > wrote:

Salamun Alaykum.

A servant of God can be better than a messenger of God. The following Quranic example of Moses and his teacher gives us such understanding:

[18:65] They found one of our servants, whom we blessed with mercy, and bestowed upon him from our own knowledge.

[18:66] Moses said to him, “Can I follow you, that you may teach me some of the knowledge and the guidance bestowed upon you?”

[18:67] He said, “You cannot stand to be with me.

[18:68] “How can you stand that which you do not comprehend?”

[18:69] He said, “You will find me, GOD willing, patient. I will not disobey any command you give me.”

[18:70] He said, “If you follow me, then you shall not ask me about anything, unless I choose to tell you about it.”

[18:71] So they went. When they boarded a ship, he bore a hole in it. He said, “Did you bore a hole in it to drown its people? You have committed something terrible.”

[18:72] He said, “Did I not say that you cannot stand to be with me?”

[18:73] He said, “I am sorry. Do not punish me for my forgetfulness; do not be too harsh with me.”

[18:74] So they went. When they met a young boy, he killed him. He said, “Why did you kill such an innocent person, who did not kill another person? You have committed something horrendous.”

[18:75] He said, “Did I not tell you that you cannot stand to be with me?”

[18:76] He said, “If I ask you about anything else, then do not keep me with you. You have seen enough apologies from me.”

[18:77] So they went. When they reached a certain community, they asked the people for food, but they refused to host them. Soon, they found a wall about to collapse, and he fixed it. He said, “You could have demanded a wage for that!”

[18:78] He said, “Now we have to part company. But I will explain to you everything you could not stand.

[18:79] “As for the ship, it belonged to poor fishermen, and I wanted to render it defective. There was a king coming after them, who was confiscating every ship, forcibly.

[18:80] “As for the boy, his parents were good believers, and we saw that he was going to burden them with his transgression and disbelief.* [18:81] “We willed that your Lord substitute in his place another son; one who is better in righteousness and kindness.

[18:82] “As for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city. Under it, there was a treasure that belonged to them. Because their father was a righteous man, your Lord wanted them to grow up and attain full strength, then extract their treasure. Such is mercy from your Lord. I did none of that of my own volition. This is the explanation of the things you could not stand.”

Thank you and may God guide me,

Muhammed Irtaza
— On Sat, 7/2/11, Mubashir Inayet <> wrote:

From: Mubashir Inayet

Salaam

I don’t understand this statement:

“…PART 1

The Quran teaches us that a messenger of God is not necessarily better than
anyone else in the congregation. In 18:60-82 we see that God picked out one of
the biggest messengers, Moses, one that God said “ I made you for Myself”… and
we see in those verses that God sent to Moses ‘one of our Servants who We
bestowed Mercy and Knowledge’, and Moses proved to be a lousy student….”

How did Moses prove himself to be a “lousy student?”

If I am not mistaken, Allah grants titles to His chosen Messengers like Rehmat Aalimeen, Khalil Allah, Kaleem Allah, Rooh Allah, and makes the right choice for His Chosen Messenger which included having the proper wisdom, character, attitude, piety, character. Therefore, any one of us, no matter how good, should not be put on par with His chosen ones.

Sure, Chosen Messengers were human and not beyong making errors of judgement, but that does not mean we start assuming we can be better than them.